.B8S 



D O 



BBS 



/ 



HB 821 

B85 
Copy 1 



V 



Distribution and Control 
of Wealth 



R. P. BRORUP 



COPYRIGHTED BY THE AUTHOR 1911 



NORTH AND SOUTH BOOK CO. 
MIAMI, FLORIDA 



CCI.A280545 



* *THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONTROL 

OF WEALTH 

The distribution and control of wealth is not the most 
important question in this country; but it is a question of 
importance in all countries. Some years ago, while dis- 
cussing a more important question, digression was made 
long enough for the following expression : 

"It is not to be denied that if the capitalists have shown 
heartlessness and depravity to a degree of irrationality, 
the people of our race have shown weakness to a degree that 
naturally leads to their displacement and extinction. They 
have been impressed by the glitter of a material show, 
rather than by the loss of their race and civilization. Even 
when the capitalist alienates the wealth of the country with 
the same freedom that he alienates the country itself, and 
sends millions abroad to buy a foreign title for his daughter, 
they are impressed rather by the glitter of the show than 
by the injury and disgrace of the transaction. A prosti- 
tution of the wealth of the country by capitalists and for- 
tune-hunters that would not be tolerated by any nation with 
a national sense of self-respect, and that has made us a 
spectacle and derision to the world. 

"Next to the alienation of the country itself, the alien- 
ation of its wealth is the most important abuse of the money 
power. That it has not been dealt with is another example 
of our incompetency in meeting new problems, and finding 
means of solution. Deep in the ruts of our traditions, 
we find it impossible to cut out new paths to meet new con- 
ditions. 

"The doctrine should be obvious, that the wealth of a 
nation belongs to the nation and its people; that those who 
have vast accumulations, beyond personal need, acquired 
by whatever means, must be regarded as stewards account- 
able to the nation for its use. If the use they make of it is 
dishonoring, damaging or oppressive, the possession must 
revert to the nation as the ultimate and final owner. 



2 THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONTROL OF WEALTH 

"Personal and private ownership, up to a point where 
it remains personal and private, must be regarded as wise 
regulation. The possession and use of vast accumulations 
can never remain personal and private, it must affect the 
whole people and consequently be its affair." * 

Agitation is one thing, definite measures are another. 
Offenders have come to look with complacency upon agi- 
tation. Experience has taught them that they have noth- 
ing to fear. As long as certain traditions are maintained 
they can defy public pressure. It is therefore a question 
about the traditions. 

The monopolizers of wealth in the early history of what 
we call civilization, with armed retainers took the land 
away from the freeholders, and subjected these to forms of 
slavery, bondage or serfdom. The land being the principal 
source of wealth, they acquired nearly a monopoly of this ; 
but not content therewith, they established themselves as 
lords over the souls and bodies of men as well, preventing 
freedom of thought and action. 

Towards modern times came the cry for liberty, and after 
fierce struggles a measure of this was granted the people. 
We generally speak as though the battle has been won in 
civilized countries, but it has only been won in a measure. 
The monopolizing class not only has special privileges, but 
retains the plunder of earlier days. The land is generally 
held by them as owners to be disposed of at their pleasure. 
The people that till it are but tenants; the profits of their 
toil, beyond a mere maintenance, go to the monopolizer; 
who, besides has vast tracts retained for special purposes, 
pleasure grounds, etc. 

The attempts to remedy this have been few and feeble. 
People get stuck half way, so to speak. They have shouted 
themselves hoarse over the measure of relief that was 
granted them, congratulating themselves that they had won 
freedom. To redress the wrong of ages appears to have 
been beyond their thought. Herbert Spencer, in the days 
of his enthusiasm, was foremost in declaiming against the 



* "The Struggle for America." Price fifty cents, North 
and South Book Co., Miami Florida. 



THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONTROL OF WEALTH 3 

land monopolizers of England, showing the immense results 
that might be gained by a distribution of it among free- 
holders. Later, he came under the spell of an imposing 
conservatism, and inclined to the belief that if the Lords 
and Landlords were dispossessed, they must be compensated. 
This is property right, ironclad and unbendable, yielding 
to no consideration whatever. It does not even matter how 
the property was obtained, if the right to it has once been 
tolerated or indulged, there is no relief on any ground, 
either moral or patriotic. 

If the Lords and Landlords must be compensated for the 
land they arrogated to themselves, mostly by brute physical 
force, and have had the use of for hundreds of years, how 
must the people be compensated for the deprivation of the 
land through those centuries? What compensation have 
you to offer the people for tyranny, wrong and injustice 
through ages. Here is scope for compensation that would 
give any one inclined that way unlimited chance. 

In so far as the land is held by monopolizers, there is large 
chance for relief by dividing it up into family farms for 
freeholders. But the relief, in the nature of things, is not 
indefinite or unending. Some have made "access to the 
land" a panacea for all evils as though our planet was ex- 
pandable, capable of answering to any demand. The land 
of a country has chance for a certain definite number of 
families, when it is occupied by these there is no more 
access in that line. 

People may roughly be divided into two classes: those 
who are governed by the fundamental idea of honest work 
and productiveness as a means of living; and those whose 
instincts are predatory. The workers and the schemers. 

History shows the masses of people in an unfavorable 
light. We find them laboring largely to give the products 
of their toil to idlers who by some means have obtained 
control. We are disposed to accuse them of cowardice, 
thinking it should be easy for them to rid themselves of 
those that are taking the profits of their labor. But the 
schemers have an advantage in the mere fact that they are 
not occupied with work for a living. They have leisure, 



4 THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONTROL OF WEALTH 

time to plan and to cultivate their cunning. The workers 
are confined to their particular places, and must be occu- 
pied to obtain the necessities from day to day. More than 
once did the people of England, and of other countries, 
rise against their oppressors, and sometimes they were 
entirely successful when in the field, but they were not able 
to keep in the field, their homes and work demanded their 
presence. When scattered, the king gathered his armed 
retainers, rode around and hung them one by one to their 
door-posts, telling them concessions were null and void. 
The schemers of any kind in any country have advantages 
that make it difficult for people to defend themselves. 

Yet while the masses are hampered and seemingly dis- 
credited by the tyranny they endure ; nevertheless, to them, 
their struggles and experiences, we must look for the heroic 
and worthy in life. Their victories alone make for progress. 
The aristocracy of Europe, a thousand years ago, with 
armed retainers, took the land from the freeholders by 
brute force. And they have ever since been occu- 
pied in the task of keeping what they have taken. The 
task is not elevating in its character ; the best thoughts and 
efforts do not gather around it. Defending a position of 
unjust advantage is not conducive to what is good, grand 
or noble. It is not so in this country. Among the common 
classes of people, we find indeed, the weaknesses of human- 
ity, sometimes humiliating, but we find also the possibili- 
ties and actualities of better things, for they have not put 
it out of the question by subjecting themselves to the neces- 
sity of defending a false position. 

Civilization, or what is desirable in it, depends largely 
on proper distribution of property. A population of cheat- 
ers and cheated can not be much worth while. If it is true 
of those on the one hand that they enter hardly into the 
kingdom of heaven, it is true of the others that they are 
not helped on that way by being cheated and fooled. Even 
with a proper distribution of property we may fail, but we 
have one condition for success. 

The chance for great wealth, and other chances of like 
character, supposed to be uplifting, are like other games of 



THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONTROL OF WEALTH 5 

chance, rather demoralizing, especially when dominantly 
possessing the minds of a people, even to the crushing out 
of the life of a race. Greater certainty of justice and equal- 
ity has a better effect, tranquilizing, steadying the minds 
and morals of a people. 

Inequalities are in themselves not much of a matter, but 
when they come to affect the composition and make-up of a 
people, the civilization of a country, it is another thing. 
The intrinsic value of a nation is in the character and 
development of the people, no untoward accident in the dis- 
tribution of wealth should be allowed to stand in the way 
of it. 

An achievement of the schemes in all ages is the con- 
struction of a formula which shields them in their power 
and control. This they have imposed on the masses as self- 
evident or revealed truth in the name of which they have 
demanded impunity and commanded success. When prop- 
erty right is quoted against interference in behalf of public 
welfare, it is nothing better than such a formula. People 
are conscious of tyrannies, of oppression, the need of re- 
forms; why do they not use their power? Why do they not 
act? A formula stands in the way. 

We are said to labor under economic disadvantages be- 
cause of a too unequal distribution of wealth. Distribute 
it to the best advantage. Rules of order must be main- 
tained, but the schemers should not be allowed to formu- 
late them. 

The country not only furnishes the wealth, but chances 
and opportunities to accumulate it. It should be required 
that it be not used against the country or alienated from it. 

Alienation of the wealth of the country should be consid- 
ered the capital offense; for this the punishment should be 
hanging and confiscation of wealth, or anything that will 
put a stop to it. 

The value of property right should be subjected to two 
tests : the means of acquisition and public policy or the wel- 
fare of the people. The test of honesty, as a matter of 
presumption is much against all large accumulations. But 
a narrow inquiry into this will not always be thought nee- 



6 THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONTROL OF WEALTH 

essary. Does the possessor of vast wealth justify his pos- 
session by evidence that it is for the public weal and advan- 
tage that he possesses it; if not, shove it into the public 
treasury. 

The values of property accumulated by the schemers in 
one way or another not only imply deprivation of this prop- 
erty on the part of the people, but also imply a depriva- 
tion of their liberties, their right to self-government and 
protection; it reduces them to some form of subjection or 
subordination. The people in permitting these accumula- 
tions not only surrender property into the hands of the 
schemers, but surrender power which should be sacred to 
themselves, and securely retained in their own hands. 

Ambitious rich often tell us themselves that what they 
are after is not so much the money as the power that goes 
with it. When they tell us this they at once produce the 
best possible argument against great wealth; they reveal 
its dangers and pronounce its condemnation. Popular gov- 
ernment means power in the hands of the people, to do the 
best for themselves and control the course and destinies of 
the nation. If wealth means the taking away of this 
power, take away the wealth. 

If a corporation or enterprise of any kind does not sub- 
serve the best interests of the people, put in into the hands 
of receivers, confiscate the big holdings to the government, 
giving it a natural control. 

In short, if wealth does not subserve the best interests 
of the country and its people, confiscate it to the govern- 
ment, that it may be made to do so. 

In making readjustments and redistribution, our gov- 
ernment could not undertake to deal with foreigners be- 
cause confiscation would be involved. Such would have to 
be given notice to divest themselves of securities. The agi- 
tation leading up to any measure would naturally suggest 
it to them, but official notice would be in order. 

In some departments the evil of accumulations and 
monopolies are so evident as to be seen at a glance. Such 
is monopoly in land. By monopoly in land we do not under- 
stand ownership of land. The land divided up into family 



THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONTROL OF WEALTH 7 

farms and distributed to actual owners is the best possibie 
arrangement. Undo what interferes with this; place a 
limit on land held by individuals or corporations, whether 
kept idle or under a system of tenantry. No squabbling 
should be allowed as to how land beyond such limit got into 
the hands of certain persons, the fact that it is found in 
their possession should suffice for condemnation. 

Lately the head of a lumber trust declared that if their 
lands were taxed they would destroy the forests on them 
beyond hope of restoration. A nation deserves to have its 
forests destroyed that lays itself liable to threats of this sort. 

We are only beginning to reap the more pernicious re- 
sults of this accumulation of wealth. The originators in 
these enterprises were men of the people. They won their 
successes by intense application, hard work of its peculiar 
kind. This, at least, served to keep them from some forms 
of mischief. Not so with their children. These are not 
subjected to the necessity of this disciplinary work. They 
have nothing to do but to feed their vices. They prey upon 
the virtue of the country, and are a curse generally. A 
dangerous lot of degenerates which the nation, when it 
awakes to righteousness and rationality, will place in some 
asylum. A large farm in the west, where they might have 
rational employment, and be looked after with kind regard 
for their reform and improvement, might save some of 
them. Their useless accumulations, a dangerous weapon 
against themselves and the public, should be shoved into 
the national treasury for the benefit of the people from 
whom it was taken. 

To insure regulation and control on the part of the gov- 
ernment, all persons with wealth of a certain magnitude, 
should be registered and kept under surveillance. Their 
movements and operations reported, understood and al- 
lowed. They should not dispose of any important part of 
their property without the knowledge and consent of gov- 
ernment. They should not, nor any member of their fam- 
ilies, leave the country without permission. 

A natural, almost inevitable tendency of the monopoly of 
wealth is that ownership be extended to cover the people in 



8 THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONTROL OF WEALTH 

some form or degree. Land and other possessions are 
worth little without laborers. It is natural for the class 
who owns one condition for unlimited leisure to covet the 
other. Hence, we have or have had slavery whenever it 
was left to this class. In Mexico, a handful of people own 
the land, some owning millions of acres. As a natural, next 
step they have reduced the people to a form of slavery to 
work it for them. But the inclination on the part of the 
monopolizers of wealth to look upon the rest of the popula- 
tion as their property, a commodity in the market, to be con- 
sidered only for its value to them is as marked now and 
here as ever. The people to them is but part of their scheme. 
Divide up property into small holdings, and you avoid the 
danger. 

A common scheme of banking is to collect money 
from farmers and working people and distribute it among 
the "business men" of town. In due time the bank breaks, 
and the money of the workers has found its way into the 
hands of the schemers. By manipulations of various kinds 
the same result is accomplished. It is a mistake to sup- 
pose that it is the poorer classes that have suffered most 
by the depredations of the very wealthy. Rather on the 
contrary. It is more generally those that have something 
to lose that have lost. It may indeed have been the savings 
of a working man through life; or the fair reward of the 
better paid clerk, small tradesman or farmer; it may have 
been the patrimony of industrious fathers; or slow gath- 
erings of several generations of thrifty ancestors. Small 
fortunes without number, have been swallowed up in the 
accumulations of the very wealthy. The wisdom and care 
of the owners of such did not suffice to save them from 
being despoiled. 

Of course what is found fault with is the wrong rather 
than the right in the possession of property. Let us be 
reminded of our obligations rather than encouraged to cut 
loose from them. The object is justice, intelligence and a 
finer sense of morals, rather than a cast-iron rule fitted 
without them. It would be preposterous to suggest confis- 
cation in any particular case unless a wrong can be righted 
by it. For what is the position of those that complain of 



THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONTROL OF WEALTH 9 

a prospective violation of property right. Have they 
respected the right in others? No, for the property of 
others is found in their hands. It is a plea that they be 
allowed to keep their plunder. That restoration be made 
unlawful. That any trick turned must be final, and the 
results last forever, be they ever so pernicious. The people 
want laws that will allow of restoration without impossible 
processes. 

What is right in the possession of property, on the other 
hand, should be better safeguarded than at present. We 
are not careful about the real thing or there would not be so 
much despoliation. 

There is nothing more sacred than the substance of hon- 
est labor. In handling it you are handling the life hopes 
and possibilities of its owner. In laying your hands upon it 
you lay your hands upon his life. For it represents his life ; 
it is the expression as well as the maintenance of it. It is 
the effort of his life in its toil and labor, its hopes and 
fruition, the future of his children, the dignity of his old 
age. He who takes some of it takes a portion of the 
man's life. 

The schemer will claim that he has also worked for what 
he has and therefore is on the same ground. After a man- 
ner it is true. The everyday swindler, the burglar, the 
highwayman, may claim as much; they do, after a fashion, 
work for what they get, but we shall not think it worth 
while to point out the difference. The various tactics, in- 
genuities and peculiar advantages by which immense wealth 
and its power is.acquired do not come upon the same ground 
as the right of labor to its reward; they belong rather to 
what may be called the right of conquest, which is recog- 
nized as a right only as long as the other party is not strong 
enough to contest it. It is not a right in the moral sense. 
It belongs to a world outside of morality, which it is the mis- 
sion of civilization to subject to the moral law. 

Such confiscation, in the interest of the public; does not 
mean a sacrifice of the individual to the interests of the 
state. Doing away with abnormalities and monstrosities is 
not a sacrifice. The individual does not need these, is not 
benefited, but rather on the contrary. 



10 THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONTROL OF WEALTH 

Much is said of the desirability of freedom to accumulate 
to provide rewards for initiative and activity. However, 
there are things we should not wish to hold out as rewards 
for anybody's striving. It is rather a question to discour- 
age ambitious people from striving after it. The people 
desire to control its own affairs, and the affairs of the 
country; it should not be left to an individual, or a set of 
individuals. The ambition of men in the past arrogated to 
itself the land and the wealth of the country, making the 
people serfs and slaves. The ambition of men never stop 
short of something of this sort. We allow rewards for 
activities, but the country and its people are not to be given 
over as reward to any set of men. If the country reaps any 
good from the activities of these people, it is incidental; it 
was never on record that they made it an object. The object 
is always their own aggrandisement. Incidentally, likewise, 
the country may receive harm. Our resources might have 
been more safely and sanely developed if not so wholly 
turned over to capitalists. Capital can be owned by the 
people or the state instead of by a few. Their efforts 
always end when they themselves are suited. The aim is a 
"settled" condition, highly satisfactory to themselves. After 
that stagnation of dark ages. It would save a lot of turmoil 
of brain, evil scheming, bribery, corruption to have it plainly 
understood that it is useless for these people to accumulate 
enormous wealth, power and control in the country, for it 
will simply be taken from them if they succeed in gain- 
ing it. 

It is interesting to notice that more than two thousand 
years ago a state was organized on the very principal of 
guarding against greed and grabbing. It was the principal 
thing about the Spartan Republic, as organized by Lycargus. 
Lycargus adopted severe measures to equalize conditions and 
make greed hardly worth while, but he accomplished it. The 
world was already. old in experience at that time and he 
knew what he was up against when he undertook to restrain 
greed and grabbing. If we should undertake, on a small 
scale, to do the same, it is certain that his extreme measures 
would not be used, for we would not aim to accomplish so 
much. 



THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONTROL OF WEALTH 11 

If we should have established the principal that possess- 
ion is not necessarily final, but may require further con- 
firmation in justice and the welfare of the people, there 
would still be left the question of its application. There 
should be none till the people, the whole nation, is prepared 
to sit in judgment. Decisions should not be surrendered to 
professionals. Beware of giving important power to any 
set of professionals. There is danger in disturbing a land- 
mark, even if an evil use has been made of it, we should be 
able to establish a higher order of righteousness. If it be 
left to the schemers, we shall sink lower, advantage will be 
taken of it to further despoil the weak. 

Government has hitherto been left to the schemers. Till 
the people are capable of representation we are not in a posi- 
tion to handle a strictly popular measure. 

So far, the capacity of accumulating wealth has been 
considered the test of all wisdom. Those that were wealthy 
had proven their wisdom and were elected to rule the 
nation. It was considered that an even chance was before 
everybody to produce these proofs of wisdom, and that those 
who failed to produce them had declared their incapacity. 
As long as this simple creed is generally believed, people 
have an easy way by which to determine their action. But 
when it begins to dawn upon us that to the end of our 
days the great mass of us will have to be producers of wealth 
rather than accumulators, people will seek for other tests of 
wisdom, and consider that the accumulators do not very well 
represent the producers. 

You send your best money-makers to congress, and they 
continue the business after they get there. But it is not the 
worst of it. Where the broad wisdom of a nation is needed 
the equipment of the accumulator is deficient. He is nar- 
rowed by his one-sided pursuit. His mental attitude is of 
necessity self-centered. It is not only that his selfish de- 
signs and self-interests stand in the way, his whole mental 
and moral make-up disqualifies him. His thoughts accus- 
tomed to move within the narrow circle of his own personal 
advantage, refuse to go beyond on any question whatever. 
If occasion demands it he often shows intelligence that 
would shame the lowest grade of it. 



12 THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONTROL OF WEALTH 

Nor must people take up with professionals as their rep- 
resentatives. There is danger in any class of men that 
claims to be the embodiment of exclusive knowledge. There 
is rather more danger now than ever before. Science has 
thrown a glamour around some of the professions that 
promise to fool the people as much as they have been fooled 
in the world's history. Professionals are like the proverbial 
devil, you give them an inch and they take an ell. You give 
them some power and they go on adding to it, magnifying 
it, expanding it, till you find yourselves thoroughly in their 
grasp, and no easy way out of it. You find it easy to give 
away the power that should be sacred to you, but you wade 
through blood to get it back again. We have now a medical 
trust that tyrannizes in the name of science. Step by step 
it has built up a control as sweeping as the whole population, 
and reaching to everything a man possesses. In the absence 
of any real representatives of the people, it has been the easy 
work of professionals and corrupt politicians. 

Professionals do not stop with money extortion, they de- 
mand control of bodies and souls. Nevertheless, the money 
consideration is well worth attention. You have allowed pro- 
fessionals to legislate, and they have done it to their advan- 
tage. Permitted to name their own fees and salary, they 
have established precedents for enormous pay, and use these 
for continual increase and augmentation. Under pretext 
of fees, estates of orphans and needy creditors are swal- 
lowed up. Crime and criminals made mere occasions for 
their profit. Naturally dangerous as a class, you have 
failed of any efficient control over them, because of failure 
of representation. 

You have the advantage that there is nothing in your 
occupation or position that forbids mental and moral ex- 
cellence, and should be able to find fit men of your own. Yet 
in congress there is not a single workingman. There is said 
to be four farmers, but if the matter was investigated, it 
would probably be found that they are not farmers, but big 
landowners, the worst of all monopolists. The farmers and 
workingmen should, according to their numbers, have two- 
thirds of the representatives in congress. In a real contest 



THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONTROL OF WEALTH 13 

you can not hire, you can depend only on mutual interests. 
Some of those you vote for claim to have begun life as men 
of your class, but this does not insure present sympathy 
or interest. Insist on men actually of your class, and 
who will stay in your class after they are elected. This is 
made somewhat more difficult now on account of increased 
salaries, sufficient to lift officials out of your class, most 
likely contrived for this very purpose. It is an easy way to 
defeat your intention; if you elect any of your own, give 
them salaries and income sufficient to lift them out of your 
class. There is besides, to be considered the many avenues of 
easy access to wealth while in official life. When it comes to 
a question of selecting men capable of resisting great temp- 
tations, the available material is very much reduced. Men 
combining character and intelligence in a high degree are 
not plenty in any class. But by looking for them resolutely, 
you will find some such of your own. 

It has been the custom in England for people to elect their 
landlords and money-mongers to represent them in parlia- 
ment, so much so that they came to think they owned it as 
an actual right. Electioneering was considered a game for 
lords and landlords that a boy could play at. If any dissat- 
isfaction was expressed by the people, it was never thought 
they would go so far as to actually claim representation, and 
it was therefore treated in a humorous fashion. But last 
election the English people really rose to the point of elect- 
ing some representatives to parliament, and it created con- 
sternation in the ranks of the privileged class. They sat 
up and took notice. 

For popular control it would be necessary further to pop- 
ularize our government by elimination of the supreme court 
as a law-making or law-abolishing power. In any other 
country when a measure is passed by the two houses and 
signed by the Executive it is law. And it is much needed it 
should be understood what is law. Here we hardly ever 
know. The element of uncertainty introduced by the power 
of our supreme court is very vexatious and damaging. Long 
processes must be subjected to before we can finally be 
assured what is law. 



14 THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONTROL OF WEALTH 

A law is passed by our two houses and signed by the 
President. A stranger, not knowing our peculiarities would 
take it for granted it was the end of it, but it is only the 
beginning. It is now turned over to the supreme court 
judges who are asked if it is constitutional. Well, they do 
not know. Some of them think it is and some of them think 
it is not. They argue about it, but are able to arrive at no 
conclusion. Then a vote is taken to decide whether the law 
is to pass or not. In voting each follows his sympathies, an- 
tipathies or self-interests. A representative of congress may 
do this but is restrained by fear of his constituency, which 
will quickly call him to account. 

England has no written constitution; the constitutional 
guarantees are understood and pertain only to actual facts 
of government. It may be presumed that other countries 
with written constitutions escape our dilemma by confin- 
ing their constitutions to facts and numbers that do not 
need to be interpreted, and that can be construed only one 
way. When you put general rules in your constitution that 
may or may not be applied to anything in heaven or earth, 
as the judges may please, you give them almost unlimited 
power. A law can not be passed that may not be knocked 
out by the application of a general rule, if the judges see fit 
to do so. 

But if we take away from the supreme court judges the 
power to abolish the laws we make, one and all, we leave 
it to the people or their representatives actually to determine 
what shall be law; that is what we understand by popular 
government. When we have faith in popular government 
we shall not devise checks and balances against it. 

In those countries that have not attained to trial by juries, 
or election of judges, where these are appointed by the king, 
civilization drags. The judges invariably consider them- 
selves apart from the people, representing the class in power. 
Consequently their judgments are always an outrage on the 
people whenever class is in the remotest concerned. If we 
have become subject to class distinctions, see that judges and 
representatives are of your class, and devise means to keep 
them in your class. Have them within reach. The funda- 



THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONTROL OF WEALTH 15 

mental of our government is that the people are the final 
authority. No set of professionals should be allowed that 
can not be held to account, and readily be brought before 
the bar of the people. 

When congress is representative of the people, if the 
supreme court judges, notwithstanding no pretext being 
left them, should undertake to assume the law-making 
or law-abolishing power, they would be impeached, ousted, 
in flagrant cases punished. 

In former times, certain professionals were dressed out 
gaudily and strangely, and given peculiar and high-sound- 
ing titles to the end they might impress, befool, befog and 
mystify the people, that it might be overawed and overruled. 
We are coming back to this idea. Our judges are being 
arrayed in robes. It is new with us, and it is a tendency. 

It is not a question about the dignity and power of any 
set of professionals, but about the dignity and power of the 
people. 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



